The last 50 years have seen the world undergo drastic changes. The number of megacities; structures with more than 10 million people, has almost doubled in less than 25 years and will be 41 by 2030. By 2050, 66% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. Increasing urbanisation and infrastructure development has seen the demand for natural resources like sand, water and oil increase at an exponential rate. 

In a country like India, even though central and state authorities try to manage natural resources to the best of their abilities, there are many cracks in the system currently. From illegal activities to bribery, corruption and sheer wastage, unaccountability and irresponsible management, there are several issues.

If you look at the economic lifecycle of sand from source to end consumer (the start and endpoints) – India is too vast and complex to monitor and regulate and loading up on technology at these points is futile and ineffective in our view. However, technology provides ample scope to monitor the transportation segment closely within the lifecycle of sand. The Internet of things (IoT) today is capable of bringing together people, processes, data, internet-enabled devices and machines to transform the way we network and interact. IoT turns huge information as well as big and small data into transparent, simple and reliable digital experiences, creating new capabilities and unprecedented economic opportunity for organizations. It connects things that have never been connected online to applications for operational excellence, efficiency and accountability.

t4u has developed an IoT-enabled sand solution that is designed to provide a comprehensive real-world integrated platform that fully cognizes the unique difficulty that this natural resource presents. It enables us to track and monitor all activities concerned with sand transportation from source to destination with minimal financial investment from the government.

SMART [Sand Management and Regulation/Transportation] by t4u provides a comprehensive real-world integrated digital platform that fully cognizes the unique challenges that this natural resource presents in its conscious management and addresses the same comprehensively from end-to-end.  

Sand is a unique mineral with a very broad spectrum of usage when compared to other minerals. Sand has no substitute for its versatility today. It deserves specialized attention considering that after fresh water, sand is considered to be the second most consumed natural resource on Earth. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) stipulates that “Sand and gravel represent the highest volume of raw material used on earth after water” but also sounded the alarm over the fact that “their use greatly exceeds their natural renewal rates”.

The solution is designed to provide a comprehensive real-world integrated platform that is cognizant of the unique difficulty that this natural resource presents. It is designed to tackle the challenge with a multi-pronged approach and even cater to the needs of both- state and district-level administrative ecosystems in India whilst managing the sand consumption.

The Solution Modules

Key Highlights of the Solution

Controls illegal sand transportation

• Sand shall be loaded/Delivery Challan (an official document) issued only if Global Positioning System (GPS) is operational

• If GPS is not operational, issues shall be addressed instantly at the Stockyard

• Controls misuse of same Delivery Challan used for carrying illegal sand which will lead to control of illegal stockholding

Supports policymaking

• In-line with the overall objective of Government to eliminate black-marketing/illegal sand

• Actual consumption pattern – district / state / outside of the state

High operational efficiency

• No dependencies on other third-party systems to fulfil orders

• Efficiency and flexibility to manage/control policies based on demand/supply mechanism

• Robust marketplace – quick dispatches, ease of accessing the list of registered transporters, enhanced business from transporters all leading to higher customer satisfaction

Cultural Transformation brought about by t4u SMART platform over the past 5 years in districts across the state of Karnataka, India

• For the first time, sand management and accounting systems have become transparent

• t4u has brought about greater acceptance of GPS tracking of sand trucks and sand boats in the state of Karnataka

• Issue of online permits have become a norm/synonymous with sand

• Consumers have become comfortable with ordering sand online

• For the first time, the weight of sand is an important factor in transactions [earlier it was truckloads]

• Stockyard Management – End-to-end process. First of its kind is being deployed in the state of Jharkhand

• Protects and enables livelihood generation of the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) segment. 

The Future of the Solution: 360 Sand-Ecosystem Value Creation

Our goal is to transform even the most conventional or manual challenges into a transparent, simple and comprehensive digital experience that connects all stakeholders, from source to consumer, powered by real-time visibility of the process. This way, all stakeholders have a macro view of the problem and solution as well as present and future opportunities.

About :

t4u is an IoT-enabled platform, solutions and services organization that designs, deploys and curates digitally connected business ecosystems for the real-world, providing end-to-end solutions, from consulting & advisory to execution and field support for large-scale digital transformation initiatives for sectors like Sand or enterprises across a wide variety of domains.

t4u has entered into a strategic business partnership with Antrix, the business wing of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to bring space technology to the common man. Since 2011, t4u has built natural resource platform solutions for various ecosystems like sand, water and iron ore. It has enabled many a client from enterprises, government agencies to community-linked organizations to harness the power of connected digital ecosystems. The organisaton’s headquarters are based in Bangalore, India.

If you wish to contact them, please connect with

Sangeetha Shenoy
Head - Communications/L&D
Rane t4u Services Private Limited
Email: sangeetha.b@telematics4u.com
Website: https://www.ranet4u.com

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author/s and they do not necessarily reflect the views of SandStories